144 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



to their entreaties, nor would be even permit them the solace they could 

 derive from one night's rest and sleep on board his vessel, that they 

 might the better withstand the further fatigues and hardships in store 

 for them. Against the express wishes of this monster, Captain Winslow 

 sprang into the main chains and aboard of the vessel, but the aid which 

 the unfortunates wanted the Spanish captain could not be induced to 

 give, and the crews of toil-worn, famishing, abandoned men proceeded 

 on their voyage. Who would not say that if the sea, which proved 

 more hospitable than man, had swallowed up these miserable men, their 

 blood would have been on the head of Captain Dominick, of the brig 

 AlerciditaP 



The night of the 6th was the most perilous of their voyage, as the 

 wind blew in a succession of heavy squalls. The boats were hove to by 

 making a line fast to the oars and paying them out ahead. In this 

 situation they lay until the dawn. From daylight until 11 o'clock they 

 used their sails, but the wind blowing a heavy gale from a northeasterly 

 direction they were again compelled to heave to. At about 4 o'clock 

 in the afternoon the captain's boat was swamped^ but the occupants 

 were all rescued and divided between the other two boats. By this 

 accident the water and the nautical instruments it contained were lost, 

 and the two remaining boats were so loaded that their gunwales were 

 not more than 6 or 8 inches out of water. " In this situation," says the 

 captain, " we passed the night; nothing was heard save the awful roar- 

 ing of the tempest and occasionally the voices of some of the oflQcers and 

 crew offering up a prayer to the Almighty Ruler of wind and wave for 

 their safety. He heard our jirayers. In the morning the wind mode- 

 rated and the sea was beaten down by a heavy shower of rain." From 

 this time they were favored with pleasant weather, and on the lOlh of 

 May they landed near Conventus, in the province of St. Catharine, in 

 Brazil, without water and utterly exhausted. So much reduced had 

 they become that a boat-steerer was drowned by the capsizing of the 

 mate's boat, he being too weak to extricate himself from the surf. 



It would be easy to greatly extend the mournful lists, but those 

 enumerated are types of each class of casualties. Still another class 

 appears, however, and with this we will pass to the consideration of 

 other subjects. 



Among the dangers encountered by our whalemen in the Pacific 

 Ocean is the serious and insidious one of the attacks of boring-worms 

 upon the bottoms of their ships. The least exposed place upon their 

 planking where the copper may have become chafed off by contact 

 with sunken rocks and reefs, without a thought of danger incurred or 

 damage done presenting itself to the mariner, serves as a rallying point 

 for the teredo, and soon the vicinity of the break becomes honey-combed 

 with its habitations, and fortunate is it for the seamen if a w^arniug leak 

 drives them into some haven for repairs while yet the damage is repar- 



*0a his arrival in port Captain Dominick reported that he had tendered them help, 

 which they refused. As though drowning men ever refused substantial aid! 



